


Friends in Summer

by Gloomiebunny009, Love_Psycho



Series: Inheritance of Cards and Demons [5]
Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist, Cardcaptor Sakura
Genre: Drama, Friendship, Gen, and fight evil, in which rin and ying hua make up, or sorta evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 16:32:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7322659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gloomiebunny009/pseuds/Gloomiebunny009, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Love_Psycho/pseuds/Love_Psycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After everything that happened before, even the good natured Rin finds himself struggling to come to terms with his friendship with Ying Hua.</p><p>Then an old challenge that was forgotten goes rogue and they have to work together to fix things...</p><p>And in more than one way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends in Summer

**Author's Note:**

> First of the side stories before the 3rd arc!
> 
> This one I actually started but then I burned out near the end so my best friend Gloomiebunny took over. Please give feedback, especially for her sake! She has a bad history with comments and would love some nice ones. She did a lot of work here to make up for me being exhausted (which you can guess at by looking at the word count...and then considering what it means when I say the 3rd arc is the BIGGEST) and unable to continue with the side stories during this.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Rin lets out a soft, exhausted moan. “Aaaah...tooo hot...”

This year's summer's heat appears to be even worse than any other Rin has gone through. Even the time when the A/C was broken doesn't seem to compete with this one.

Then again, this year Rin is forced to work on the school festival. Something that drains him of energy as even in third year everyone thinks he's some kind of monster.

That makes him shift his current burden, glancing at the box to remind himself where he's supposed to put this. This year it's his class who are doing a haunted house and like usual Mizuki is getting picky, and even perfectionist about things. Thus this delivery of special props for the haunted house.

“Rin-kun?” Rin looks up at that voice and pauses. It's Ying Hua, smiling at him in an almost nervous fashion. Rin doesn't blame her. He also doesn't respond to her question.

Ying Hua's smile fades slightly for a moment. “Aaah...Umino-san says that she needs your help on something else. Something about costumes?”

“Oh. Tsukishiro-sensei is...?” Rin asks softly, as he goes through the main doors and breaths out a sigh of relief at the air condition. Ying Hua pads slightly behind him.

“She got called away to deal with some problem that the principle needed her help with.” Ying Hua gives a small shrug. “Are you okay with it?”

Rin considers that then nods. “Yeah. I should be okay. At least there will be air conditioning.”

“There is that.” Ying Hua grins briefly at him, but it soon fades and she turns to stare straight ahead as they both make their way past the lockers, after switching back to their uwabaki, and further into the school towards their classroom.

The silence is a deafening.

* * *

It's not to say Rin likes how things have been recently. But it's very hard to face Ying Hua knowing that, despite her friendship, she caused him hardship and endangered those around him for the sake of the trials. Even if it saved the Cards, Rin can't help but think of the times his family, that Yukio, were put in danger.

And that's without bringing in everyone else who could have gotten involved. Not to mention the final trial endangered everyone in the entire city!

Rin can't forgive her for that. But still, she's his friend.

It's not an easy situation, or one with an easy solution.

Or so Rin thinks.

* * *

Ying Hua is at a loss. She hadn't considered this, or maybe she just had been too proud in this regard.

 _'Rin-kun isn't as forgiving as Sakura...I should have thought of that sooner.'_ Ying Hua sighs, leaning against a wall. Staring up blankly at the ceiling above her, Ying Hua wonders how exactly she regains Rin's trust.

 _'I think...I can't be sure but he can't possibly like things like this either...we have to find a way to settle things one way or another.'_ Ying Hua frowns lightly. _'Even Naoko-chan has asked me what's wrong...she's observant but for things to be bad enough for her to come up to me and ask...'_

Ying Hua lets out a breath and pushes off the wall. At least right now she can focus on the upcoming summer festival and the haunted house their class is making.

She'll take things as they come for now, and wait for the right opportunity to open communications once again.

She doesn't want to lose her friend.

* * *

Mizuki eyes Rin, wondering what's with all the sighing he's doing. He's still a diligent worker, so Mizuki can't really think of a way to bring it up. Speaking of his work, Mizuki glances at the costume he finished and scowls a bit.

 _'Oi, oi, I think he's better than me...'_ Mizuki eyes the ghost costume, then looks at the one in her hands. _'Yup. Better than me. He did it in half the time it's taking me too...'_

Mizuki joins Rin in his next sigh, making the boy blink and glance over at her. “Oh, Umino...are you okay?”

Mizuki gives him a disbelieving look. “Me? What about you? You've been sighing this whole time! What's eating you?”

Rin flinches, subtly but very much so a flinch. “Um...well...it's nothing.”

“It can't be nothing. Not from the sighs and the fact you are about to tear apart that zombie costume.” Mizuki says tartly.

Rin flushes as he looks down and sees that she's right. Carefully, he sets the half-complete costume, smoothing out the fabric. “Well...it's Ying Hua.”

“Ruan-san?” Mizuki blinks. She hadn't expected that. “What about...hey, you haven't been spending your lunches with her.”

“Uh...yeah. It's...too awkward.” Rin rubs his arm, looking away from Mizuki.

Mizuki stares. _'Of all the...he's having an argument with Ruan-san!'_ “You had an argument with her, didn't you?”

Rin opens his mouth, then slowly nods after a moment. Mizuki doesn't notice the strange look on his face at the definition of “argument” being applied to his current situation.

“Well, then why don't you try actually talking it out.” Mizuki snorts. “Unless...did you break up with her?” Mizuki asks, a little horrified. At the same time, a part of her perks up despite her best intentions. She never approached Rin, first because he was so distant, and later because Ying Hua seemed to have gotten to him before anyone else could. Even Watanabe.

“Break...up?” Rin stares at her, looking confused. “What do you mean?” Rin goes for his bottle of water at that point, unscrewing the lid to take a sip.

“...aren't you dating Ruan-san?” Mizuki asks in confusion, getting Rin choking and hacking out some of his water in surprise.

“What? No! We are just friends!” Rin blushes a bit and goes for his water again, still mumbling. “Yeesh, not like I'm interested in dating...” _'Ying Hua isn't even interested in me that way.'_

Mizuki can't help but gape at him. “What?” Apparently everyone's assumptions there is all wrong. Hell, even Abe thought that of them and his successor is of the same opinion. Looks like they read all the signs wrong. Then again...

 _'No one bothered asking them.'_ Mizuki pulls a face at that reminder. _'Silly bit about assumptions rings true again.'_

“So...what happened then?” Mizuki asks.

Rin stares at his water. “I guess you could say we...got into a fight about her job.”

“Her job? I didn't know Ruan-san had permission for a part-time job...” Mizuki considers this for a bit. “Well, you still should try talking it out. Just letting it sit there is going to make it rot and fester.”

“Aaah...you got a point. Thanks...Mizuki.” Rin smiles softly at Mizuki before turning back to the zombie costume.

And thus completely misses the rosy blush that takes its place on Mizuki's face at Rin switching to her first name.

* * *

Ying Hua sighs as the time comes for everyone to leave the school. Another day with things tense between her and Rin.

 _'Will this continue on to the school trip?'_ Ying Hua winces at the thought. She had been looking forward to exploring Kyōto with Rin, especially in this age and world. It would be very different than the one she's been to before at her homeworld.

But it doesn't look like anything will be improving, so Ying Hua turns to leave.

The silence is broken by a loud, frightened scream and before she really thinks of it, or even considers that she's wearing sneakers, Ying Hua turns and races back into the school towards where the scream came from.

* * *

Ying Hua skids down the hall and nearly runs into Rin, who stops at the sight of her.

“You heard that too?” Ying Hua asks, blinking at Rin.

“Did you feel that?” Rin says at the same time.

They then both pause, feeling awkward. Then something _dark_ brushes against both of their senses and they turn to the classroom before them. It's the music room, they realize in surprise.

“So...what do we do?” Rin asks.

“It's probably a trap.” Ying Hua points out.

Rin shrugs. “Then let's spring the trap.”

Ying Hua considers that for a moment, then slowly nods. “Yeah.” She looks down at the ring on her finger. “You ready Estelle.”

“ALL FUNCTIONS NOMINAL.” Estelle informs her.

Rin stares at the ring for a moment, then pulls out his Key. “Key that hides the ancient power of the heavens, show your true form before me. I, Rin, command you under our contract. Release.” The Key grows into the staff and, looking once more at Ying Hua, Rin pushes the door open.

The bright light that shoots out of the room makes them close their eyes and flinch back, just as it washes over them in a wave of strange warmth.

* * *

They open to their eyes to see not the classroom, but a strange distorted place that looks like a crazy painting of some kind. Abstract arc turned into an actual place.

“Uh...?” Rin looks around, seeing the bright colours swirling on the side. “This...kinda reminds me of Maze.”

Ying Hua groans. “Of course it does...Estelle, what are you picking up?”

“TRACES OF KINOMOTO SAKURA'S MAGIC. HOWEVER, ANOTHER MAGIC HAS BEEN LAID OVER TOP.” Estelle reports.

“Wait...no you are right.” Rin closes his eyes and just _feels_. “The magic...I can identify it though. I think it's human though.”

“Wonderful. I remember this. I set this up awhile back as a potential test.” Ying Hua shrugs at Rin's look, doing her best to meet his gaze without shame. “But it wasn't meant to be exactly like this. And since it's changed, I'm not sure the same method for breaking through it would work.”

“I can sense the person behind it in here.” Rin offers after a thoughtful pause. “I can't pick up where they actually are, aside from being in here with us.”

“So we find them and figure out what they did so we can pull this trap apart?” Ying Hua suggests.

Rin nods, then turns to look ahead. After a moment, he picks a direction and starts walking, Ying Hua following closely behind.

* * *

“You said you made this.” Rin says after a long moment. “Why?”

Ying Hua eyes Rin for a moment, trying to guess at what he's feeling from his expression. It seems to be a mix of emotions, a confusing mix at that. Ying Hua decides to take a chance and goes for complete honesty.

“Back when I thought I might have more time, I set somethings up like this one. So you would be able to transform Cards to escape it.” Ying Hua gnaws on her lip a bit more before continuing. “It wasn't just centred in the music room. It was originally supposed to catch you alone after school. At most, it would have made you late to get back home.”

“I see...” Rin looks away from Ying Hua. “Why...why did you have to put people in danger?”

“Because you will always do your best for the sake of others.” Rin whirls around to stare at Ying Hua, who gives a soft smile. “That is your greatest strength and weakness Rin-kun. Through that, I was assured that you would in truth manage to transform the Cards.”

“Oh...Ying Hua...I just...was anything real? I asked that before but...” Rin hesitates. He starts as Ying Hua reaches out and grabs his hand. Her smile shifts slightly, taking on a firmer shape.

“Rin-kun. You are my friend. And always will be a good friend of yours. What we spoke of, what we did, the only lie was in my name and where I came from. I did not wish to lie all the time to you.” Ying Hua smiles. “You underestimate your appeal Rin-kun.”

Rin stares at Ying Hua for a long moment, opens his mouth to speak...

And a loud shriek goes up, the entire dimension they are trap in wiggling and heaving as something begins to happen.

* * *

Both Rin and Ying Hua fall to the floor and on to their bottoms as the entire dimension wiggles and bounces up and down. Even with things this crazy Rin can hear the shrieks of another person clearly trapped inside this like them.

“Oh no! Someone's trapped in here with us!” Ying Hua yells out once she hears the shrieks, guilt forming over her expression at the fact an innocent person has gotten trapped in here when it was meant just for Rin. Anything like this would be terrifying to a normal person so she can only imagine what is going through their minds right now.

The rest of the time is a blur of motion and flashing lights. At least until the dimension fades away, leaving them in the music room, shocked and surprised by what just happened.

“What...it got away?” Rin shakes his head. “Dammit.”

“Let's go.” Ying Hua is staring at Estelle on her finger, which is glowing brightly. “Estelle got a firm read on it. It shouldn't take too long to get rid of it. Not now. Not with the two of us.”

Rin stares up at Ying Hua, who is offering a hand to Rin. Rin hesitates for a moment, then smiles and as he takes her hand, allowing Ying Hua to pull him up. “We need to save that other person trapped in here too, so yeah. Let's go...Ying Hua.”

Ying Hua smiles.

Together they rush down the hall following the lead Estelle has on the core of the trap. Thankfully it's close by so they aren't stuck wondering around the fake halls. Soon they find the exact room where the core is, and hear soft whimpering of the other person trapped inside with them.

Without hesitation Rin kicks the door open and charges forward with Ying Hua following right behind him. Inside on the floor is a music club member curled up and crying, while behind them is a single doorway. It appears to be a normal doorway when one looks at it first but the more he examines it the more off putting it becomes.

For one thing it stands in the middle of the room which is not where a normal doorway usually is. He is pretty sure if he were to go around and try to look behind it there would be nothing on the other side, no new room, just a single doorway. Despite that it appears to lead into a dark abyss of a room that has no light and feels _wrong_ to him.

The more Rin stares at the door the more their surroundings seem to be _sucked_ into said empty doorway, which makes him take a step back. Licking his lips Rin holds out his staff before him and takes a deep breath, calming his nerves ever so slightly. He's fought so many things before this one, this is nothing to him compared to his track record.

“Ying Hua you take care of them, I'll get rid of this thing!” Rin orders, glancing over his shoulder at the girl.

“Right I've got them.” She nods her head at him and doesn't hesitate to kneel down next to the poor person trapped with them. Ying Hua places a hand on their shoulder but finds it doesn't do much other than make them whimper louder in fear.

Rin looks up at darkened doorway, his mind racing on how to get rid of this thing quick before it decides to push them right back into the maze they just escaped. Looking down at his feet he can see that the room they stand in slowly being sucked into the doorway, which makes him wonder what will happen once everything is gone.

One good thing is he and the others are staying in their spots, it's more of the space around them being affected. Which helps him out a lot, and gives him just enough room to breath a bit more calmly. Rin moves around to the side of the doorway and sees that as he suspected there is no new room it leads into like he hypothesized earlier.

 _'So it's sort of like just wood standing there with a black hole in the middle...'_ He thinks gritting his teeth. Rin looks down at the floor that is slowly being sucked in, becoming more and more stretched out. ' _A very hungry black hole.'_

So how to get rid of it...

Rin moves back around so he faces the front and so he's close to Ying Hua with the poor person they've found who's still in shock.

“Rin-kun it's starting to suck the space in faster.” Ying Hua's voice points out. “Once it's all sucked in it'll put us back at the start.”

Looking down at his feet Rin finds that she's right and feels his heart start to beat faster...what should he do?! What could protect them? Or maybe what can make this stop...

Gritting his teeth Rin glares at the trap as his thoughts race around in his mind, discovering none of them are settling down into a good suggestion.

 _'If I could cut it then maybe...wait...that's it!'_ Rin blinks at the thought and almost laughs. “Damn I can be so dense!”

Rin quickly pulls out Sword from his card holder and throws it out in front of him. “I need a sword sharp enough to cut a dimension in half! Sword!!”

He slams his staff down onto the card and feels the power rush through him as wisps of blue smoke covers his staff. When the smoke leaves the staff is fully transformed into a thin sword, which he holds out in front of him defensively.

With a loud war cry Rin charges at the door and raises his arm. He slices through the middle of the door cutting it neatly in half. An eerie screeching noise reaches their ears as the thing slowly fades away. A strong wind rushes towards Rin which makes him stab his sword into the ground and hold on to it. Ying Hua and the person they've rescued scream as the wind rushes past and pushes them back ever so slightly.

Rin cracks an eye open and looks down at the ground and gasps as he sees the rooms the door had sucked up rush under his feet. It's almost as if the rooms are going back into their original spots in one burst. He squeezes his eyes shut as the wind gets worse until finally it stops.

Rin first peaks an eye open nervously, feeling his heart beat loudly in his chest like a jackhammer. When he sees the room isn't about to shift or more wind is going to blow he finally sighs in relief and opens his eyes.

To his astonishment they are back in the music room with everything in their right places.

“Rin-kun are you okay?”

Ying Hua's soft voice makes Rin look at her and stare. Then he starts to laugh, snickering at first before turning it into a full blown one. The girl's hair is a mess and looks closer to a bird's nest thanks to all the wind that blew past them. Rin isn't much better which, maybe even worse than she is and that makes Ying Hua laugh at him just as hard.

* * *

After their laughing session Rin fixes the situation with the student by using Memory. Once he's set off to home the two make their way to the lockers. The strain between them has lifted but both can feel a tight tension between them still.

Ying Hua keeps back as she watches Rin open his locker and take out his street shoes trying to figure out what she's going to say. “R-Rin-kun...I know I said this earlier but...I am sorry.”

The boy looks into her eyes and can see she means it and sighs softly rubbing the back of his head. “I know but...damn how do I put this...”

He narrows his eyes before groaning every so slightly. “You are still my friend and always will be and I kind of forgave you but...but what went down is something I can't just let go lightly.”

She seems to wilt at that which makes Rin stare at his shoes as his cheeks heat up. “But that doesn’t mean I won't eventually forgive you totally. It's just going to take some time.”

Ying Hua lifts her head and blinks at Rin when she meets his eyes. She smiles softly and gives him a little nod. “I understand then Rin-kun.”

With that they both head home for the night exhausted both mentally and emotionally. However the next day the air between them is much lighter now. Something that is not missed by anyone that knows them well.

Sekki smiles at that and breathes a sigh of relief.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts, feelings, feedback? Please comment below! Especially for the sake of my best friend!


End file.
